Hello folks. Its been a little while since my last update and I hope all is well. Aside from battling through the wind and rain that this summer has kindly provided, I’ve been working on a solo album. A couple of years ago a good friend of mine left the country to pursue his career in the New World. Amongst the other detritus he decided to leave me with was his strat. I didn’t know how to play it of course, but ironically not being able to play seems to be a great facilitator for song writing. I started recording the album for real around Christmas time. The original plan was to get my friends to play on it, but by the time I’d put the demo guitars down, and started on drums and keys it wasn’t a big leap to push myself a bit and do everything else. I’ve always been a bit of a multi-instrumentalist (or jack-of-all-trades) and it was good to explore some of the sounds and instruments at my disposal. Playing everything yourself does however, take quite a looooong time. Completion is creeping up on me like a sunny day and I shall play you some sounds soon. In other news I’ve been listening to Tumbleweed, recording a bit of hammond for Goldray, hanging out with Crispian on his film set and playing drums in a new project called Swallowing The Seas. I hate describing music with words so I won’t, but watch this space. There’ll be an EP soon.

Yule never believe it, it’s almost Christmas time again, and no Kula Shaker Christmas is complete without a quick catchup from our very own Fantastic Four. There’s snow doubt, this year’s Kula Xmas will be one to remember.

We recently bumped into Harry shopping for Christmas presents in Poundland. Harry agreed to give us 30 seconds of his time in exchange for our silence..to never reveal to his friends how much that expensive bottle of perfume really cost.

So we’ve seen you recently on GMTV performing alongside Gabriella Cilmi. What other music projects are you involved in right now and will we be seeing any music from you as an individual?

Yes, I do hate having to get up so early….. I’ve been doing some writing and production, playing a bit of freak out improvisation, doing sessions and getting my drumming shoes on again to play some extraordinarily slow tempos with tattooed men wearing eyeliner – generally keeping busy. I’m working on my own album at this very moment in fact. Just spent a week at Lonze’s getting things going. Early stages so I can’t say much yet but its very exciting – its been a long time coming.

What’s on your i-pod just now?

My i-pod has been hijacked by the missus, the last thing I remember listening to on it was Logos by Atlas Sound. I look forward to listening to it again one day.

What’s the craziest thing a Kula Shaker fan has ever given to you after a show? Keep it clean please!

A selection of greeting cards.

Who in the band would you say is Santa, who’se rudolph the red nose reindeer, who’se Santa’s little helper and who is the stocking?

I think Maurice really gets the title of Santa, and possibly all the reindeer and elves as well. At some point each of us has been the stocking. Mostly Paul.

Thanks for the Christmas songs lads. Sounds like the melody to The Beatles’ ‘Flying’ is in there somewhere, from The Magical Mystery Tour, which itself was a Christmas bonanza back in ‘67. And Snowflake is a rockin’ good tune. Great stuff! Happy Christmas!